Particulate-based vaccines offer a safer alternative to traditional organism-based vaccines; however, their effectiveness to provoke immune response largely depends on the micro/nano- delivery systems carrying the antigen. In this project, we introduce a new class of functional microcapsules that offer the potential to not only overcome a number of hurdles associated with current particulate vaccine manufacturing technology (e.g., exposure of antigens to organic solvents or degradation during encapsulation), but also enable new functionalities for transporting the microcapsules and releasing their contents on-demand.